"Disengagement" is under way
in the theHoly Land.
But "engagement" has been the experience of
Jewish and Palestinian youth camps across North America.And the idea will go home to Palestine
and Israel with this new
breed of Middle East citizen who refuses to be
"enemies." Just concluding their life-changing summers are
programs like Peace Camp Canada, Creativity for Peace, Face to Face ~ Faith to
Faith, Hands of Peace, Kids4Peace, and their forerunner, Seeds of Peace.
These camps that fashion tomorrow's leaders are
described at http://traubman.igc.org/camps.htm
.

On their heels will follow a
family camp.September 16-18 is the Third Annual OsehShalom~Sanea al-Salam Family Peacemakers Camp in the California mountains. Youth and parents, as well as singles, will travel
from the Middle East and North America for
inspiration and deepening across generations.
The next evening after camp, Monday, these campers
will give a major San Francisco
public presentation to tell their stories of struggle and change to the world.You can read about this at http://traubman.igc.org/camp2005.htm
and http://traubman.igc.org/campmonday.htm
.

This Sunday, founder Melodye Feldman came down the Coloradomountain
from two successful sessions of Building Bridges for Peace, seen at:http://s-c-g.org/buildingbridges/ Monday, she was already on the phone offering
her best ideas to the planning team of OsehShalom~Sanea al-Salam.
Tuesday, today, she flew to Israel
and Palestine
to do even more to build new relationships and deepen others.
Such is the spirit and sharing of intelligence of this
new family of camps.
Programs that promise to train citizen-leaders, to
help change the direction of history for the good of all.

This
same day, the Denver Post told the story of Building Bridges for Peace.Read about these intelligent, courageous teen
women, and you will know and feel that change is in the air.
See the telling photos.

And assist activities like this where you live,
however you can.--
L&L

For some Israeli and Palestinian women, just
participating in a Colorado peace camp triggered terrifying threats back home
in Israel, particularly the West Bank.
Others feared to even mention they spent their summer
vacation at "Building Bridges for Peace."
Because of the Middle East
conflict, the girls fear using their last names at home or abroad.
"It's not safe," says Inas,
21, a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Jenin,
the center of one of the most intense battles of the second intifada,
or Palestinian uprising.
"People will say, 'Oh my God, you went to the United States.
You talked with Israelis. You're a traitor.' "
She sits on the forest-fringed terrace of this ski
lodge in rural SummitCounty, dressed in a
black T-shirt and jeans, looking like any young American.
Four years ago, Inas told
fellow campers that she wanted to become a suicide bomber. Now she's a
Palestinian peacemaker, headed home at a pivotal time for the Middle
East.
On Sunday, Israel
took a historic step toward peace, starting its controversial pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank.
Wednesday, Israeli soldiers will begin forcibly removing all settlers who
refuse to leave. Dismantling the settlements could lead to more bloodshed, and
these teenagers - fresh from peace camp - face the possibility of even more
violence.
Already, an Israeli soldier deserted the army in
protest of the pullout, then gunned down four Israeli
Arabs before a mob beat him to death.
Israeli Defense Minister ShaulMofaz has warned Palestinians that Israel will
launch airstrikes, regardless of civilian casualties,
if terrorists attack during the pullout.
"I think it's going to be horrible," says Rawan, 22, a gregarious, tongue-studded Palestinian who
lives in East Jerusalem.
In her neighborhood, Eliana,
a 20-year-old Israeli, expects an escalation of anger.
"There will be more hatred toward people who
don't agree," she says, grabbing a veggie-burger between peace-building
lessons.
"In Israel there is a strong sense of
belonging to a certain political party, right wing and left wing. Many people
actually hate the other side."
Over 12 years, more than 500 teenage girls have
attended Building Bridges for Peace, founded by MelodyeFeldman, an American Jew who founded the Denver- based nonprofit
Seeking Common Ground.
Difficulty in fundraising almost closed the camp a few
times, but Feldman perseveres because the teens insist.
"For them it's a matter of urgency," she
says. "This program keeps them tied to some form of sanity in a pretty
insane place."
Here, they learn new communication techniques, develop
leadership skills and focus on building peaceful communities. Then they return
to embark on a year-long follow-up program.
They are Jewish, Muslim and Christian. Most are from
the Middle East, a few are American.
Numbed by violence, they struggle to reconnect with
their feelings - fear, anger, joy, love - in order to
communicate better with each other. The telling of their stories, an abyss of
pain, is balanced with fun.
Up on CopperMountain, under an
endless canopy of stars, they sing around the campfire. They hike, knit and
break into spontaneous dancing when Middle Eastern music plays, arms swaying
overhead as bellies undulate.
"When they look across the dinner table at each
other, mostly they see another teenage girl just like themselves," says
Feldman.
Change requires a breach in the security of certainty.
On July 28, Reem, 16,
stepped off the plane in Denver
into a gaggle of Israeli girls, and struggled to mask her panic. The only
Israelis this Palestinian had ever known were soldiers.
"Oh my God," she remembers muttering.
"I'm going to stay with them 14 days? This will be really hard. They're
the enemy."
On the first day, she was partnered with Roni, a 16-year-old Israeli who lives on a kibbutz.
Apprehensive, treating each other like mysterious
packages that might detonate at any moment, they
worked on their first art project together, illustrating their hopes and fears.
Twelve days later they're inseparable, standing with
arms draped around each other, grinning.
"My hope was to be able to look at an Israeli and
see not the enemy but a human being," says Reem,
gazing fondly into Roni's warm brown eyes.
"But now I look at an Israeli, and I see a great,
great human being!"
This summer Rawan , co-director of the follow-up program in Jerusalem, was astonished at the number of
teens who overcame a lifetime of stereotypes with unprecedented speed.
But when she pauses to reflect, it makes a certain
sense - especially now, with dismantlement in Gaza.
"People are fed up with the conflict," she
says, "and trying to find some hope somewhere in this big pile of dead
bodies."
Desperate for peace, they hurtle past the pain,
yearning to embrace enemy as friend.

Staff writer Colleen O'Connor can be reached at 303-820-1083 or at
coconnor@denverpost.com.

War's collateral damage
forges hate, then changeTransformation is slow for some teens.

Rawan, a Palestinian who
lives in BeitHanina, East Jerusalem, adamantly refused to show any change
during her first year at camp.
"Because I got to hear the other side, and all
that I believed to be true about the other side was half-wrong, or not
completely right," she says. "That was really hard for me to deal
with."
She grew up watching her parents socialize with their
Israeli friends. An Israeli soldier had risked his life to help her sick father.
Still, something inside snapped when Rawan was 10.
Turning on the television one day, she saw footage of
an Israeli man shooting people at prayer inside a mosque.
"I got really extreme," she says. "I
was like, 'Jews should die. Suicide bombs are OK.'"
Six weeks after peace camp, when she had just started
her first year at BethlehemUniversity, the intifada started. Her university was bombed.
Shaken, she went home, where her mother said a girl
named Adva had called to check on her.
"Who the heck is that?" Rawan
recalls grumbling before dialing the phone number to find out. Adva turned out to be an
Israeli teen from camp, someone she had already forgotten.
"It struck me that none of my Palestinian friends
called me, because we're used to bombing, but that Adva
had called." Rawan's transformation, and
her friendship with Adva, started at that moment.
They crossed into alien territories to meet each other's families. Adva even attended the wedding of Rawan's
sister.
Now they co-direct the Jerusalem branch of this program, coaching
the next generation of women leaders in the art of building peaceful
communities despite religious conflict.
"I'm not looking to save the world," says Adva, 22. "I know I can't. But if I can open the eyes
of 'the other,' even one person, that's enough."